Heritage Foundation Names 2nd Communications Chief in 25 Years

About the Author

WASHINGTON, DEC. 3, 2002--For the first time since
1977, there is a new communications chief at The Heritage
Foundation.

Rebecca Hagelin was named vice president of communications and
marketing Monday for the prominent Washington think tank. She
succeeds Herb Berkowitz, who created Heritage's communications
department and retired from a 25-year career with the organization
in October.

"Herb built our communications department into one of the best PR
shops in the country," Heritage President Edwin Feulner said.
"We're confident that Rebecca's extensive experience, conservative
credentials and leadership ability will help us maintain that
status and bring it to even greater heights."

With more than 17 years of experience in developing and
implementing comprehensive public affairs and marketing strategies,
Hagelin has long been involved in spreading the conservative
message in both Washington and around the nation. In 1983, she
became the director of public relations for the Center for Judicial
Studies and Benchmark magazine. In 1986, she joined the national
management team at Concerned Women for America as director of
communications and oversaw the development of the organization's
first national PR efforts, trained volunteers and spokespeople in
PR techniques, and served as one of the organization's primary
spokespersons.

Hagelin began a consulting business in the early 1990s, where her
clients included numerous non-profits, elected officials and
businesses. She most recently served as vice president of
communications for WorldNetDaily.com, a "fiercely independent" news
site that specializes in the investigative reporting of government
waste, fraud and abuse. Hagelin's strategic planning and work there
is credited for boosting the site's readership by more than 400
percent in two years, to more than 2 million unique visitors
monthly. She joined the company in 2000 as director of
communications and was promoted to vice president after only six
months because of her outstanding work product and
strategies.

A poised and articulate spokesperson, Hagelin is the author of
numerous articles published nationally, including a weekly column
for WorldNetDaily.com. She is a veteran of hundreds of radio,
television, newspaper and magazine interviews, including numerous
appearances on CNN, Fox News and national network news
programs.

Her experience and manner have enabled her to forge productive
professional relationships with staff, media, business leaders,
diverse citizen groups and government officials. She has taught
public relations classes around the country and served as a media
coach for various public policy organization leaders and members,
businesses, and civic and government officials.

With more than 200,000 individual, foundation and corporate
supporters, The Heritage Foundation is the most broadly supported
public policy research institute in the country. The nearly
30-year-old institution has a staff of 185 and an annual budget of
$30 million.